ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said it launched a military operation against India early on Saturday (May 10), using medium-range Fateh missiles to target an Indian missile storage facility and air bases in Pathankot and Udhampur.
The strikes came after Pakistan said India fired missiles at three airbases inside Pakistan, including one on the outskirts of the capital, as the conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours spiralled toward full-blown war.
According to state-run Pakistan Television, retaliatory attacks were underway targeting “multiple locations in India”.
The government has named its new retaliatory operation against India “Bunyan-un-Marsoos”. Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the name means “a wall fortified with lead”.
“BrahMos storage site has been taken out in general area Beas,” Pakistan’s military said in a message to journalists, adding that the Pathankot airfield in India’s western Punjab state and Udhampur Air Force Station in Indian Kashmir were also hit.
India’s defence and foreign ministries did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.
Pakistan’s planning minister said on local television that “special measures” had been taken to avoid civilian targets and that they were targeting locations that had been used to target Pakistan.
Pakistan’s military said the prime minister had called a meeting of the National Command Authority, a top body of civilian and military officials, which oversees decisions on its nuclear arsenal.
The South Asian countries have exchanged fire since Wednesday, when India launched air strikes on what it called “terrorist” sites in Pakistani territory after a deadly attack on tourists on the Indian side of the divided Kashmir region.
The clashes – which have involved missiles, drones, and exchanges of fire along the de-facto border in disputed Kashmir – are the worst in decades and have killed more than 50 civilians.
ATTACK ON AIR BASES: PAKISTAN
Military spokesman Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, in a live broadcast aired by state television in the middle of the night, said India had “attacked with missiles” targeting three air bases.
He said a “majority of the missiles” had been intercepted and “no flying assets” had been damaged.
One of the bases targeted, Nur Khan air base in Rawalpindi, the garrison city where the army is headquartered, is around 10km from the capital Islamabad.
Several blasts were heard from the capital overnight.
The air base is used to receive foreign dignitaries and Saudi minister of state for foreign affairs Adel Al-Jubeir had departed just hours earlier.
“This is a provocation of the highest order,” Chaudhry said. “Now you just wait for our response,” he warned India.
